A Day in the Dirt

The weather was gorgeous today! And I had a ton of motivation - woohoo! After an exhausting week and a sick day, I was very glad to have some get-up-and-go.

I started the morning in the front flower bed. After weeks of neglect (hot weather, busy, no energy....) the weeds had taken over... :( BUT they did not stand a chance against me and my spade! haha! The good thing about the weeds getting away from me was that there were some flowers that popped up that I probably would have pulled up with the weeds had they not had the chance to bloom! (I have mentioned my not-so-green-thumb...) Well, the weeds are gone, and now the beauty of those little flowers can shine on! It felt really good to get that done. The girls had fun digging in the dirt with me, especially Julianna:

Next we moved to our little garden in the back. It's a raised bed, so not much weeding, just checking on my two tomato plants and the sunflowers that Emma planted this year. She was so excited seeing them grow, and just this past week they've all come into bloom. I love how they really brighten things up.

And the tomato plants:



This is an heirloom variety, the tomatoes are interesting shapes...



And this is just a regular beefsteak tomato. There are 5 little ones growing! I hope they turn red...

 And finally, the other day we noticed some rather large yellow flowers growing in our bushes at the back of the yard, so I went and checked them out, and turns out we've got ourselves a pumpkin plant growing! It was from our rotten pumpkin that we discarded of last fall! Hopefully we'll get a pumpkin out of it for carving this year!

See the flower?

A pumpkin vine!

Itchy Fingers

It's been a while since I have done any sewing or knitting. Last week I was really itching to make something, so I did! :) I didn't have any extra fabric lying around, and it's challenging for me to find extra time to sit down at the sewing machine. Knitting is easy to pick up and put down, so I searched through my meager yarn stash and found enough to make a pair of longies for the little babe.

It only took me 2 days to knit these up and would have had them completed sooner if I hadn't run out of yarn 3 rows before the second leg was finished! doh! I had to go to the fabric store, and they didn't have the same color! agh! I was so frustrated, but found a color that kinda blended in.... anyway... here they are, done with a braided drawstring and little heart detail that I love:



One other thing I've been working on is a little quilt! One of the ladies in the church had given me a little set of fabric squares for my birthday. Every other week, the ladies have a quilting group that meets at church. I decided to work on putting the squares together for a little quilt. I got one 9 patch square together, and it was so easy, that I got excited about sewing again! Now, I've got 11 more squares 2/3 done. It will probably still take me a while to get the quilt completed, but here's a picture of what each 9 patch will look like:

So that's a little of what I've been doing in my 'spare' time. :)



A Day At the Zoo

For hubby's day off (yesterday) we went to the zoo! We're only 40 minutes away, and we like to go at least once during the summer. The kids love animals and they were so excited when we told them to get ready, we're going to the zoo! Aside from being incredibly hot, we had a great time. Here are some pictures of our day ::

We got to see an elephant 'show' and after Emma got to touch the elephant! She thought that was pretty cool. :)



This is a statue of a baby elephant, it was really hot, that's why Ethan looks so uncomfortable.



Cool in the Pool

It has been exceptionally hot these past couple of days, and I am so thankful for air conditioning! Another way we are staying cool is in the pool!

The kids are really enjoying it! Emma is a natural fish. She would spend all day in the water if she could! Ethan thinks it's a big bathtub - and he loves bathtime! It's fun to watch them play, they get good and worn out too. :)

Halfway! (a pregnancy update)

First of all, I apologize for my blogging absence lately. Life seems to be demanding more time and attention these days. And the only thing I want to do at the end of an exhausting day is go to bed! But today was a good day, and I've got a litte extra mojo... :)

I am officially halfway (more or less) through this pregnancy! Since things have been so busy, I can't believe I only have 4 1/2 months to go! I had so much I wanted to accomplish, and I know it's not going to get done, but I seriously need to start making some lists of things I want/need to make for this little one.

We had an ultrasound 3 weeks ago. We tried to find out the gender. The u/s tech gave us her guess, but she really couldn't get a good look between the legs. So, we are somewhat planning to expect what she told us, but I am still a little skeptical. It's a baby, that's for sure, and we are thankful to be blessed with another little bundle of joy, no matter what the gender! Also, according to the u/s I am officially due November 24th. If you haven't looked ahead at your calendar, that is Thanksgiving Day... I already have plans to do some cooking ahead and freezing, whether the baby comes before then or not, it will be all done and we will have a very relaxing Thanksgiving day, unless the baby decides to come on that day, then we will have a very exciting Thanksgiving day .... ! :)

Still going through names... I have some I like, but none that I truly love just yet. We have some time anyway.... for now.... :)